Welcome to the sixth article in our Lost Lands spoiler series. (If you've missed any of the preceding ones, be sure to head back to the article that announced the set and then follow the links at the bottom of that for the subsequent articles.)
In today's article, I'm going to adopt a slightly different format and present content as a starting point for discussion and collaboration, rather than the usual one-way self-contained article designed to disseminate information. Don't worry, there will still be spoilers!
Background
For as long as I’ve been playing Shadow Era, terms like "aggro", "control", "combo", "beatdown", "rush", "stall", "solo", "mill", etc. have been used by many many players in an attempt to characterise a particular deck or group of decks.
This can be very helpful, but it’s debatable whether some of these are not necessary archetypes, but rather styles or sub-archetypes or variants, and the established classifications from other games may not be the best for Shadow Era due to differences in rules and gameplay either.
Ultimately, it’s all semantics, but I think it's worth attempting to arrive at a classification that works well in capturing a player’s options in Shadow Era.
In accordance with this, I'm going to present what I consider to be the three main archetypes available in Shadow Era today (which just so happen to fit with three new spoilers!), and then open it up to the community to assign the various other terms that get used into either variants of an archetype, hybrids of one or more archetypes, or just as a playing style or strategy that can cut across multiple archetypes. If that sounds cool, let's get started! If not, feel free to skip to the spoilers!
AGGRO ARCHETYPE
This is characterised by attempting to win the game as quickly as possible. Low-cost allies will usually be involved because they can hit early and then offer value over repeated turns.
Other sources of damage will also be considered depending on how quick and efficient they are for bringing the opposing hero’s health to zero.
Cards that disrupt the opponent’s ability to deal with the threats presented also tend to show up, but are not essential for the deck to be termed as aggro. Sometimes those cards will be dual-purpose ones that can both disrupt and/or deal damage to the opposing hero - e.g. Lightning Strike.
Generally speaking, there is limited concern for the health of your own hero, and it might actually be sacrificed for greater aggressive power. This is probably a good point to introduce a new Shadow ally from Lost Lands, who would likely have Aggro tattooed on his forehead if any ink artist was brave enough to do the procedure:
In terms of the design, Feasterling
Rather ironically, given the name, aggro is the archetype best understood and agreed upon by players, so we’ll skip onto the more controversial ones...
CONTROL ARCHETYPE
This is characterised by using cards that attempt to reduce the value of the opponent’s cards during the early game until a point is reached where the opponent’s ability to win or their ability to not lose to your win condition (or both), has been greatly diminished.
In terms of their ability to win, this will usually come simply from them running out of ways to present threats to your own hero and board situation. Board wipes and multi-target abilities tend to show up because of their efficiency, being able to answer multiple cards with a single one.
In terms of their ability to not lose, this could be achieved by dropping more expensive threats that the opponent simply isn’t prepared to deal with. An onslaught of high-cost allies is an example of this.
Sometimes the win condition will be entirely due to attrition where you have traded blows throughout the game and slowly chipped away at the opponent faster than they have you. This could be in terms of their cards or their hero health or both.
Generally speaking, control decks do not run many low-cost allies, although they can sometimes show up as "meat shields" to misdirect the opponent’s sources of damage long enough to reach the later game. The best cheap meat shield allies are ones that can be deployed as larger threats later in the game, so they aren’t dead draw when you’re ready to go on the offensive. There aren’t actually many of these in Shadow Era yet, so this is probably a great time to introduce another new Shadow ally:
Whilst Feasterling
As you can see, his growth is dependent on weapons, and it can even interfere with the opponent’s ability to recycle theirs. Whilst not the most overtly Control-oriented ally ever made, I hope you can appreciate where it would help some weapon heroes run a Control archetype.
Before I move onto the next archetype, I’d like to highlight the problems caused by dual usage of “control” for both for describing the effect of a card and also an archetype.
When used to describe an effect, it’s predominantly within the context of board control, meaning that the effect will improve the board situation for you when you play it: sometimes it will bring about a situation where you are in control; other times it will take control away from the opponent. In both situations, you have played a control card, but the reason for playing that card best indicates the archetype.
In the case of Aggro, we have already discussed how abilities like Lightning Strike
TL;DR: The presence of “control cards” does not necessarily make your deck a control deck. (Nor does it make it a stall deck either, but we’ll get to that later in the discussion, I'm sure!)
COMBO ARCHETYPE
A Combo deck is characterised by its aim to assemble a number of cards either on the board or in hand (or both) that will win the game when their effects are combined. This does not necessarily have to finish the game on the turn the combo "goes off", but that is the ideal for the player.
Compared to the other archetypes, you would expect to see a more narrow and unique strategy from deck to deck, where a specific interaction is aimed for.
The viability of a Combo deck is a product of three factors: speed (how soon can the parts be assembled?); consistency (how likely is it that all the parts can be assembled?); and power (how great will the impact be?).
Due to Shadow Era having no interrupts, the viability of the Combo archetype is deliberately restrained by the Design Team which makes it less well-represented in the meta-game as an archetype in its own right. A fast consistent powerful uninterruptable combo simply does not sit well with a game that is meant to provide enjoyable interactive gameplay.
Having said that, we very much enjoy creating cards with synergies, which can be combined for increased value, and believe there is a place for Combo decks providing they are not too fast or too consistent or too powerful. This tends to translate into hybrid archetypes of Control-Combo or Aggro-Combo decks rather than pure Combo, which offer more interaction opportunities for the opponent and require the player to pay more attention to what the opponent is doing.
If you read the original announcement, you'll already know about the Seek mechanic which is intended to help Combo decks work better and bring them more into the metagame. There wasn't a full explanation of how it works though, so please allow me to introduce our third and final ally spoiler of the week who will help us with that:
Yes, please welcome star of the hit movie, Aldmors Assemble! Sure, he could be used in an Aggro deck for his haste and ambush, but there's a couple of things about this guy that make him particularly suited to Combo decks.
Firstly, he's using our new keyword, Seek. As suggested from the explanation text in brackets, he allows you to search your deck for an Aldmor ally and put it in your hand, as long as there is space in your hand and you are fine with revealing it to your opponent (to prove you didn't grab something else!). When attempting to assemble Combo pieces, Seek can be invaluable.
Secondly, he's seeking more Aldmor allies, which fits with lowering the summoning cost of Ancient of Aldmor
See you again soon!
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